[Market-farming] Controling quackgrass organically?

Susan Houghton susangivingtree at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 3 09:57:37 EDT 2008


Hey Vicki, can you get a "pre-copy" of this ?  Even if you can't it would be a valuable resource for us when it is published.

Susan


> From: stevegilman at verizon.net
> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 07:37:11 -0400
> To: market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Controling quackgrass organically?
> 
> Hi Martin,
> I'm fortunate to be part of a SARE Ecological Weed Management 
> project led by Dr Charles Mohler at Cornell. What's below is small 
> part of a presentation I gave at the Long Island Ag Forum this winter 
> -- and I'll have an expanded version that I'm presenting at this 
> summer's NOFA Conference in August in Mass.
> 
> A comprehensive manual is slated to be published in late 2009 by SAN 
> after extensive review from workshop presentations -- its working 
> title is: “Manage Weeds on Your Farm: A Guide to Ecological 
> Strategies” and is co-authored with Toni DiTommaso, who is also in 
> the department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell University. An 
> entire section is concerned with how to think about weeds, along with 
> successful cultural management practices of how to deal with them.
> 
> At root, an organic-ecological approach to managing weeds uses an 
> understanding of the biology of weeds to outsmart them by exploiting 
> their weaknesses. This is therefore an information-rich rather than 
> an input-intensive approach. Some of the precepts are quite easily 
> grasped, while the deeper-down management paradigm shift may require 
> some considerable between-the-ears adjustments. Also, this 
> understanding may help farmers to come up with further innovative 
> weed control strategies and practices.
> 
> -- Wandering perennials such as quack grass and hedge bindweed are 
> often the hardest type to control. They spread by underground 
> rhizomes or horizontal roots, sending up daughter plants above 
> ground. Because they have the ability to renew themselves 
> vegetatively as well as produce windborne seed they can persist for 
> years, their clones becoming nearly immortal if left to their own 
> devices.
> 
> Perennial weeds that propagate vegetatively require vastly different 
> strategies. Some perennial weeds may persist for years and years 
> because they have buds on their roots or underground stems that 
> sprout when the plant is damaged. The rhizomes of wandering 
> perennials such as quackgrass are simply thickened stems that store 
> nutrients horizontally underground, although they look more like 
> roots than stems.
> 
> Roots and rhizomes form buds at regular intervals that remain dormant 
> due to hormones that are released from the growing tip of the 
> underground stems. As the distance between the buds and the growing 
> tip grows longer, the hormone concentration diminishes so that the 
> previously suppressed buds sprout and become a new above-ground 
> shoot. As anyone who has tried to tackle an area of quackgrass knows 
> – initial tillage a good way to rapidly increase the number of shoots 
> and thereby spread the plant.
> 
> That’s because the cutting up of the roots and rhizomes by tillage 
> releases the buds from their hormonal suppression, causing them to 
> sprout. But the sprouts have less nutrient reserves to draw upon from 
> the segmented underground stems, and their growth is less vigorous. 
> And this is the key to the control of wandering perennials. The ideal 
> point to impact the plant is when the new emerging shoot has used up 
> most of the reserves of the original rhizome fragment – and before 
> the shoot forms new storage roots or rhizomes. With quack grass the 
> minimum size when the rhizome segment is at its weakest is usually 
> reached when the shoot has formed three leaves – and that’s the key 
> time for another round of tillage to finally kill the plant.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Steve
> Ruckytucks Farm
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >
> > From: market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> > [mailto:market-farming-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Glen 
> > Eco Farm
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:20 PM
> > To: Market Farming
> > Subject: [Market-farming] Controling quackgrass organically?
> >
> >
> >
> > I know this question has probably been asked several times before 
> > on this
> > list but i am too busy (lazy?) to go dig it out of the archives so 
> > I am
> > going to ask it again. Just what are certified organic farmers 
> > doing to
> > control quackgrass?
> >
> > I've been spot spraying with glyphosate for a number of years now 
> > and I may
> > as well quit because it isn't working. The stuff just keeps 
> > popping up all
> > over the place. I lay out my crop ground in alternating strips 
> > with grass
> > so I can have a form of crop--noncrop rotation and soil building 
> > with grass,
> > legumes, and various perrenial weeds growing in the non crop 
> > areas. I keep
> > these areas mowed and rotate them back to crop strips every couple 
> > of years.
> >
> > I am resolving this year to try and be a better boy by repenting of 
> > some of
> > my past sins of using forbidden materials (even on a limited basis) 
> > such as
> > glysophate (aka Roundup), some salt based fertilizers (side dressed or
> > foliar sprayed), and some broad spectrum insecticides and 
> > fungicides for the
> > worst infestations. It's kind of like drinking beer. One can easily
> > justify drinking a little every now and then--after all beer is not 
> > that
> > high in alcohol and it won't hurt you if you don't overdo it--right?
> > Trouble is after awhile you find your self drinking more and more. 
> > If you
> > really want to play it safe just stay away from the stuff!
> >
> > Of course I can go out and diligently dig it up--or cover it up 
> > with several
> > layers of black plastic--yeah right! It's really getting itself 
> > established
> > in the current noncrop strips and is going to be a real mess in a 
> > couple of
> > years when I try to rotate it back to crop strips. The only thing 
> > I know to
> > try right now is to get a better chisel plow, rip the hell out of the
> > infested spots, and hope for another drought this summer. If that 
> > doesn't
> > work I guess the next thing will be to look for another farm.
> >
> > Marlin Burkholder
> > Shenandoah Valley
> > Virginia
> >
> >
> >
> > -
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
> 



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